


Back To You

by Hagar



Category: Power Rangers Samurai
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Complex relationships, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Recovery, Talking About Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-14 02:39:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2175003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mia calls the anniversary party. Emily calls Antonio. Mike calls bullshit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back To You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wildforce71](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildforce71/gifts).



> Beta by Lovechilde. Title from the Leonard Cohen song, Coming Back To you.

Mia calls the party. Emily and Mike end up vetting the food: Kevin is neck-deep in training and doesn’t care so long as it has calories and protein and Jayden is Jayden. Lauren almost begins to cry when Mia presses the issue.

Nobody is quite sure where Antonio is. Emily’s email does get a reply, though.

The three of them show up at the Shiba House with full tupperwares and bags of groceries; Mia still lives in Panorama City, which makes that possible. Jayden brings out the serving dishes; Mike shows Lauren how to brush the corn.

Ji’s room is empty, and smells empty. Emily doesn’t ask, just makes eye contact with Mia for a long moment.

Kevin is still completely useless for all things food-related.

He’s also still direct to the point of bluntness on things he believes to matter.

“Where’s Ji?” he asks.

“Gone back to the Tengen Gate,” Jayden says.

“Gone back…?” Emily asks.

“Well, he had to train somewhere,” Mike says.

“But why did he leave?” Kevin asks.

“Because I ordered him to,” Lauren says. And before anyone can ask _Why?_ she says: “My brother and I are no longer children.”

It’s Mia who asks, “When was this?” and it’s Jayden who replies: “Three months.”

Antonio arrives last.

Unlike the first time he came to the Shiba House - the first time he came openly, under his own power - he is not dressed up. His jeans pants are torn, and his T-shirt had seen better days. There is no cooler of fresh catch. He holds himself differently, too, and it’s Mike who looks at him the longest.

Emily sees that. She looks at Mia, who looks at Kevin then calls Lauren to her. Mike and Kevin take position by Jayden, who doesn’t even notice. And again just like the first time Antonio walked into the house, Jayden is so taxed by pretending to not care that he has no attention left at all for anything but that.

Antonio notices, all right: he notices Jayden looking anywhere but at him and he notices the looks Mike and Kevin shoot his way.

He holds his head higher. When he starts getting twitchy, acting as if he’s looking for a way out, Emily parks herself by his side and he stops.

He’s ignoring Jayden just as hard, though.

It’s not Mia that Emily looks to, even though Mia keeps looking at _her,_ as if expecting the younger girl to seek her support. Neither is it Jayden, or even Kevin. It takes Emily forever to catch Mike’s eye, and a second and third look until he yields. Then it’s a while more until they manage to pull off the handoff.

It’s almost time for dessert. Mia pulls Jayden and Lauren inside with her; Emily demands Kevin’s attention and, before Antonio realizes, it’s just Mike and him.

“Lauren forced Ji out three months ago,” Mike says. “Sounds like he pissed her off, _royally._ ”

“Good on her.”

“It means she’s not going to let him back. Into her life, or Jayden’s.”

“ _Ji_ isn’t why I stayed away.”

“You spent your life training to come back and fight with him, and now you leave? How does that make sense?”

“Why don’t you mind your own business?”

“Because you’re both my friends.”

“Friends. Yeah. Easy to say when you get to get away, and don’t have to prove yourself over and over and over again, despite having done everything-”

“Are you even for real - you think I didn’t get my morpher taken away? You think I didn’t have to prove that I have a right to be _not_ the way someone else decided for me?”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is you gave up too soon.”

“Maybe he didn’t.”

Antonio and Mike both turned: that was Kevin’s voice.

“Maybe Jayden needed the time,” Kevin continued as he and Emily joined the other two. “Maybe he needed to be on his own.”

“He was not -” Antonio began.

Kevin cut him off. “He’s been without Ji. I know how lost I’d be - how lost I _was_ without my coach, and Ji has been more than that to him. Ji has been coach and parent and best friend. Lauren can’t be all that -”

“Lauren doesn’t _want_ to be all that,” Emily said softly.

Kevin acknowledged that with a nod. “He’s not going to learn unless you teach him. We had to -”

“I _tried._ You were there, remember?”

“He wasn’t ready,” Mike said.

“What if I don’t want to?” Antonio said defensively. “Did you think about that, huh?”

“Antonio, we know you,” Emily said reasonably. “Are you happy?”

“If you want to scream, call Mia. She’s been listening to the rest of us,” Kevin said. “None of us had a good year.”

“Funny how coming back from a war would do that,” Mike said dryly. “And with the exception of Emily’s, our parents are more fucked up than we are.”

“Any if you can’t make yourself yell at him, any of us would,” Emily said. “And don’t tell yourself we’d be doing that just for you. You and Jayden - when one of you hurts, it hurts both of you.”

“And that hurts everyone,” Kevin said.

“And if that makes you feel better, then congratulations: you’re as fucked up as the rest of us,” Mike said.

Antonio glared at them. “Now I know what Jayden felt like whenever we all ganged up on him.”

“Think of your words, think of your life choices,” Mike said lightly.

Antonio took a swat at him.

Emily distanced herself from the play-fight that ensued. “I’ll go see what about dessert,” she told Kevin.

“Good idea,” he said, not taking his eyes off the other two.

“You’ll keep an eye…?”

He sighed deeply, but his tone was fond as he said: “For the rest of my life.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I think I will, too.”


End file.
